Beyond the Shield

by Nachman Kataczinsky

  “You’re also right about Bea. What school will she go to? At the public school she’ll be harassed. I don’t make enough money to send her to the Jewish school without help and I don’t want a handout. You want our kids to go through life as second rate citizens like we did. In a Jewish country they will be part of the majority. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

  ***

  “The Germans have accelerated their tank production and are making many more Tiger I, or rather Panzer VI, tanks than in the old timeline,” Zvi Kaplan, the Chief of Military Intelligence, told the assembled General Staff.

  “Since they stopped investing in submarine production after we started helping the Brits, a lot of industrial capacity was released. All that rolled steel is now going into tanks.”

  “What are the implications for us?” asked Gad Yaari, the Chief of General Staff.

  “In the very short term, on the order of a couple of months, there will be no measurable change. The Germans are still training crews and maintenance teams. Eventually it could get tough for the Russians. Their main battle tank is the T-34 and it’s vulnerable to the Panzer VI’s gun. The Germans are using the 88mm KwK36 gun. We hear some discussions about replacing it with the longer KwK43 but it will not happen soon – They need a new turret design for that.

  “In any case, the T-34 can’t kill a Panzer VI from the front, except with an extremely lucky shot. It can kill it from the side. Taking into account the training levels of the Russian armor units, they will suffer serious losses when they encounter large numbers of the new German tanks.

  “There won’t be much impact on the British. The Centurion will be able to kill the new panzers with the 20 pounder gun the Brits are phasing in now and has enough armor to survive a hit by the German gun. The most important factor though is training. The Brits are becoming quite good in combined arms warfare and the RPGs they’re making are deadly to all German tanks.

  “Our forces will have no problems with the new German tanks.”

  Gad Yaari nodded. “Maybe we should tell the Russians about the upcoming German surprise. They can install a better gun in their T-34 before the Germans give them conniptions.”

  The generals present agreed. “Good, then I will notify the Prime Minister of our recommendation.

  “Another issue we need to discuss is the German air force. The Luftwaffe is making a nuisance of itself both in France and on the Eastern Front. They’re also active in suppressing the partisans in the Balkans. What should we recommend to the government?”

  The Commander of the air force smiled. “It may sound simplistic, but I would send another squadron of our jets to destroy as many Luftwaffe assets as possible. We can damage their airstrips, destroy fuel dumps and aircraft.

  “I looked up their manufacturing numbers and they’re impressive. In the five years from 1940 to 1945 they made more than 15,000 fighters. In my opinion destroying their aircraft will help everyone but destroying fuel dumps would probably prove more effective.”

  The Chief of General Staff nodded. “I agree. Let’s do it with one caveat: I don’t want extremely long-range missions. Our air activities should be limited to ranges accessible for rescue in case we lose a plane.”

  ***

  ‘Departure Day’ for the Palestinians was cold and bright like it sometimes is in Israel in November. Thousands of IDF reservists were checking, for the last time, the positioning of the transport boxes. The job was seriously tedious in places like Jerusalem where the Muslim, Jewish and various Christian communities were intertwined. Only Muslims were leaving and the troops were making sure that boxes were present where they were supposed to be. Those emigrating to Jordan were already gone. Their houses would be transported with the rest.

  At two in the afternoon air raid sirens sounded in areas that were about to be transported. After the sirens a pleasant female voice, the same one that used to announce ‘Red Alert’ when rockets were fired from Gaza or Lebanon, announced: “Ten minutes to activation. Please leave transport areas now if don’t want to be transported.”

  Ten minutes later another siren sounded and areas in Judea, Samaria and Israeli Arab villages blinked out of existence and were replaced, mostly, with grassy terrain.

  The transport was done. Israel hoped that the appearance of Islamists in this world would be delayed many years or prevented altogether.

  ***

  Noam Shaviv got out of the car. He had come to this hill northeast of Jerusalem with a crew from his company. He could stand and walk short distances but had difficulty driving. They finally had accurate elevation maps of the new terrain and were preparing to start work on the design of a new city in the Samarian hills.

  “So, Jacob, what do you think of this land?” Noam asked Jacob Hirshson, whose company he had hired as his surveyors.

  “Looks like good agricultural land,” Jacob responded. “Why would anybody want to build a city here?”

  Noam shrugged. “There’s indeed good soil here but it’s also hilly and not easy to cultivate. I guess the government wants a place for people to live that’s not a desert. I hope that people from the Tel Aviv area move here. I’m considering it myself.”

  “You’re a city boy,” Jacob smiled. “I got used to my own separate house. I wouldn’t move to a high rise no matter where it was. You know that a desert is a desert only as long as it’s dry. Give it some water and it blooms. Just look at Refidim. We’re in the middle of the Sinai desert and it’s a city of gardens and parks.”

  Noam nodded. “Yes, I’m a city boy. There are lots of people like me and lots like you, so we build communities for both.”

  “I’ll have a crew here by the end of the week and submit the results to you two weeks after that. Is this satisfactory?” Jacob asked.

  “Perfect,” Noam responded. “Are you going to work on this personally or will someone else lead the crew?”

  “Do you want me to work on this?”

  “It’s up to you. I was just curious. This place is not close to where your base is. It’s a long drive from central Sinai.”

  “A long drive indeed, except I take the train to Jerusalem through Tel Aviv and rent a car in Jerusalem. So I got here rested and do some useful work on the train.

  “By the way, I’m moving to Beer Sheva. It’s temporary, for the duration of my studies.”

  “Studies? You never told anyone. What are you going to study?”

  “We haven’t had any big family dinners for a while so I haven’t had the opportunity to broadcast the news. I’m enrolled at Ben Gurion University in their civil engineering department.

  “I figured that adding a civil engineering degree would help my business and enable me to expand. I promise not to compete with you,” he added with a smile.

  “Are you moving completely to Beer Sheva or is everything staying in Refidim?”

  “I rented a small apartment near the university and will use it during the week. I’ll go back home on weekends. My mother will stay at the house and the business is, of course, based in Refidim. It’s a fairly short and comfortable train ride to Beer Sheva. I would have preferred to study in Refidim but we’ll get a university branch there only sometime next year, if the gods smile on us.”

  “Well, good luck.” Noam shook Jacob’s hand. “I’m sure you will make an excellent engineer.”

  ***

  “Herr General, the attacks on our airfields in the Balkans still continue.” The adjutant clicked his heels and put a typed list in front of General Robert Ritter von Greim, commander of the Luftwaffe.

  The list enumerated all the airfields that had been destroyed in the last three days. It was a long list. “Captain, please ask General Kreipe to come in.”

  The Luftwaffe Chief of Staff, General Werner Kreipe, came into his commander’s office a couple of minutes later.

  “Have you seen this list?” von Greim asked.

  “Yes, I have. I also carefully read the other reports.”

  “Good, and what’s your co
nclusion?”

  “The reports sound strange. Arrow-shaped aircraft flying very fast and making thunder-like noise. I’d say someone had too much Schnapps, but they couldn’t all have been drunk at the same time.”

  “I noticed that before they bomb the runways they always destroy our aircraft parked in revetments, from a great altitude, since the witnesses didn’t see or really hear anything until the bombs hit, always inside the revetments and only those that were occupied,” von Greim said. “So who might it be attacking us there?”

  “I know that Messerschmitt is experimenting with rocket- and jet-driven aircraft but they’re nothing like what the reports describe. Maybe the British developed something new?” Kreipe said.

  Von Greim shook his head. “I don’t think so. Two of the reports mention the markings on these aircraft.”

  “Yes,” Kreipe said unhappily, “white Jewish stars on a blue background. I wonder who it is we’re fighting.”

  “I don’t care who it is. We must find a solution before they destroy us. The Luftwaffe must not be helpless against an enemy. Not on my watch,” von Greim almost shouted. “Do we have any information that may be useful?”

  “They always come in pairs. You remember that yesterday we thought we might be able to swarm them with as many 109s as we could muster?”

  “Yes, I remember. What happened to that idea?”

  “First, it’s extremely difficult to swarm something you can’t see. We know they’re there only after bombs start exploding amongst our planes. We tried this morning. They attacked an airfield in Macedonia we use to bomb partisans in southern Serbia. There is another airfield in Bulgaria only 140 kilometers away that had a flight of Bf-109s. They were scrambled as soon as the attack in Macedonia started and got there within minutes.”

  “And what happened?” Von Greim rose up from his chair a bit.

  “The two aircraft somehow shot down the eight Messerschmitts without even stopping their bombing of the airfield. I have no idea how they did it.”

  Von Greim sagged in his chair. “I’m expected at the OKW in an hour. The Fuehrer will be there expecting a report. He knows about the Balkan attacks. I’m not sure what to tell him.”

  There was a knock on the door and the adjutant entered. “Herr General, we just received a message from Dijon.” He handed the typed sheet to von Greim.

  Von Greim read it and with a sour face handed it to Kreipe.

  The message read:

  From Commander Dijon airfield

  To: General von Greim, Commander of the Luftwaffe

  Copy to: Field Marshall Ervin Rommel, Commander Army Group D

  As ordered I report an unusual attack on the airfield.

  At 1100 the field was bombed and all aircraft parked inside revetments were destroyed. Several minutes later two aircraft of unknown origin bombed the landing strip and left it in an unusable condition. The two aircraft also strafed the aircraft parked by the runway and destroyed them, as well as our three aviation fuel tanks.

  As of now the airfield is nonoperational.

  Kreipe looked up at von Greim. “So they’re destroying us in the Balkans and now also in France. I hope you have a brilliant idea of what to do about this mess.”

  “Not really,” responded von Greim. “They are destroying aircraft at a slower rate than we can build them, at least for now. The immediate problem is the loss of aviation fuel. We have difficulty replenishing so much. I will try to acquire more construction capacity and bury fuel dumps deep enough so they’ll be safe.”

  “How deep might that be?” Kreipe asked with a smirk.

  “How should I know.” von Greim was annoyed. “As deep as practicable.”

  ***

  The room was noisy with everybody talking, at the same time. The Prime Minister looked at his watch; it was time to start the weekly meeting. “The Cabinet meeting is formally open. Let’s start with the first item on the agenda. The Absorption Minister, please.”

  “I have two items. First is the final report on immigration of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries. Most of them have moved here. As you know, in our previous history the well-to-do Jews from North Africa went mostly to France and well-to-do Syrian Jews went to the U.S. This time around they all came here. I think that all who want to leave are here now. We are organizing the exodus from Yemen. The overall numbers are relatively small, approximately 900,000 all together.

  “Next is immigration from the Soviet Union: It started recently and is still growing. Our experts expect approximately a million, maybe a bit more. We may be underestimating the numbers but as long as we don’t announce ourselves as the ‘State of Israel’ people think they’re invited to come to Palestine, a land of desert and camels. As bad as it is in the Soviet Union, people who have been living there for many years are reluctant to move.

  “We are carefully screening all new arrivals from the Soviet Union. You may remember that in our original timeline there were a number of Soviet spies among them. Since Stalin is still in power we expected even more this time around, but the actual numbers are small. Possibly because most of the Jews arriving now are ‘Western’ refugees. When long-time Soviet residents start arriving we will likely find more spies.

  “We just started working on repatriating North American Jews. The numbers are still small but we’re not in a great hurry. They’re in no imminent danger and we need to smoothly absorb the millions of other immigrants who came here in the last year.”

  The Minister for Internal Security was next. “As you’re all aware ‘Departure Day’ was last week. In all it went smoothly. We had several attempts to move transport boxes but nothing serious. The Ministry of Infrastructure may have a report.”

  “Nothing really urgent. We are in the process of laying out several cities as was agreed at previous meetings.

  “We have a problem with electric power supply. Our generating capacity is at its limit. Last year we started construction of a natural gas power station on the Sinai coast. It will be partly operational in a couple of weeks and fully operational by the middle of next year.

  “As an intermediate measure we re-activated the old Reading power station in Tel Aviv. It was modified to use our own natural gas so the pollution is minimal. We’re also running several 100 Mw gas turbine generators.

  “We now have enough heavy earth-moving equipment, specifically bulldozers and excavators, to accelerate the hydroelectric plant and Mediterranean-to-Dead Sea canal. It will become operational in a year or so. The earth-moving equipment is new but antiquated. It should suffice.”

  The Foreign Minister picked up. “There is one more matter of importance I need to mention: It seems that the time has come for a meeting between the three leaders of the anti-Nazi alliance. I suggest that we initiate negotiations with Britain and the Soviets for Amos, Churchill and Stalin to meet. We need to organize further coordinated action against Germany and prepare for peace negotiations.”

  Amos Nir, the Prime Minister, nodded agreement. “We are close to a point where at least parts of the German army will figure out that the war is lost and will try to negotiate a peace agreement. We need to be ready.

  “The disadvantage of this inevitable step is that the Soviets will know with some certainty what we are. I see no alternative, and we will need to deal with consequences of this disclosure sooner or later anyway. We’ll keep you apprised of our progress.”

  He looked at the Defense Minister. “Nitzan it’s your show.”

  Nitzan Liebler smiled. “First we need to increase the military budget.” The statement caused a general fidgeting and murmuring among the Ministers.

  “Just joking,” Liebler said. “Actually we’re doing unexpectedly well. As you know, we’ve had few casualties in the action so far. Financially, our main expense was in ammunition. Also maintenance for vehicle engine and cannon barrel wear and flying hours for the air force. We’re well within the budget. I can’t assure you that it will stay that way for long.

  “Eph
raim Hirshson, the General Commanding our European Expeditionary Forces, wants to become more aggressive. I agree with him. We need to push the Germans more both to ease the pressure on the Brits and accelerate the Nazi collapse.

  “Our Soviet allies are doing moderately well. They successfully opened a corridor into besieged Leningrad and are holding the Germans off on all fronts. Right now the Wehrmacht is training several more army-sized formations. You’ve received the IDF’s intelligence reports and analyses regarding German tank production so I’ll not repeat that information.

  “The Soviets are also working hard. They brought lots of tanks, artillery and Katyusha rockets to the front. They also have several new models of aircraft that are finally proving a match for the Germans. With no huge losses in previous battles and no battle of Stalingrad they’re in good shape as far as personnel goes. Their command is something else. Our estimate is that if we stopped streaming intelligence to them we might have a German breakthrough. The Soviet command seems to be slowly improving in defense but is still incompetent in offense. Our estimate is that the Eastern Front is likely to stay static for a while.

  “The General Staff asked for permission to warn the Soviets about the accelerated deployment of more powerful German tanks so they can prepare. Taking into account our political objectives and the balance of power between Germany and the Soviet Union, the Prime Minister and I decided to refuse the request. This fits with our vison of post-war Europe. To prevent Stalin from taking over all of Eastern Europe we need to prevent a sudden German collapse and insure that when Germany surrenders, the Soviets will not be tempted to pursue their objectives on their own. In other words: Germany should not be perceived by the Soviet Union as a pushover.

  “There’s one more issue that is connected to infrastructure and budget. I discussed it already with both ministers: the possibility of establishing a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite network. The military needs it for precise navigation and weapons deployment. I don’t have to tell you how convenient GPS is for civilian use.